Tim Fransen

#TLevelWeek https://lnkd.in/e-4yCWRd What are T Levels? T Levels are the new ‘gold standard’ in technical education in England and are available to 16–19-year-olds upon completion of GCSEs. They are a two-year programme providing an alternative to apprenticeships and A Levels. T Levels are a level 3 qualification; one T Level is roughly equivalent to three A Levels. T Levels have been developed with employers; employers continue to be involved by reviewing programme content and assessments regularly. This ensures T Level programmes equip learners with the skills and knowledge required to successfully join the workforce within their chosen industry. (Cited from City and Guilds Website)

16

1 Comment

New £3m programme launched to support South Yorkshire innovation The South Yorkshire Innovation Programme (SYIP) is designed to help organisations from across the region to innovate and grow. This programme is led by Sheffield Hallam University, alongside the University of Sheffield and Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, SYIP is backed by £3 million funding from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA). It is co-designed and developed in partnership with each of the region's four Local Authorities to drive economic growth across South Yorkshire. For more info on funding and eligibility and to read our case studies from previous programmes click the link. https://lnkd.in/ei-Ef5dn

31

3 Comments

I have been hearing that UK Universities are the focus of website accessibility checks of late. This is the responsibility of EVERY public body but the panic of a warning can be avoided. **Make sure your accessibility statement is up to date!** This can be used to explain where any shortfall in matching legislation is found and what you plan to do to address this. Those libraries that use a provider for your portal to the world - contact them for help. More info on the legislation here : https://lnkd.in/e2iTYMS7 A sample accessibility statement is here: https://lnkd.in/epB_q5yW #accessibility #websiteaccessibility #libraryaccessibility #accessibilitystatement

10

1 Comment

THE UK'S UNTAPPED RESOURCE - LIBRARIES Poorer high-ability pupils in primary miss top GCSE grades. Disadvantaged, high-achieving 5-year-olds keep pace with their affluent peers in primary – but an #attainment gap opens up in early secondary, research shows. A network of reimagined, well-funded libraries could do so much to support after school homework and more. #education #learning #inclusion #libraries https://lnkd.in/dq6sn8kF

10

This is a good one! The University of Birmingham is proud to be part of a new £6.75m investment in our region's creative economy. The CreaTech Frontiers consortium, brings us together with Birmingham City University, Coventry University, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Warwick University to revolutionise how we grow our region's amazing creative businesses. CreaTech Frontiers will create a network of research and development (R&D) labs that will help micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) specialising in research and exploration of creative technologies. https://lnkd.in/eaGCHY8k

8

TNE or not to TNE Delighted to see the piece by Piers Wall and Shannon Stowers in Wonkhe yesterday. Having been involved in helping to create QAA’s Quality Evaluation and Enhancement of UK Transnational Higher Education Scheme (QE-TNE) it is so good to know that it has delivered and flourished. The UK’s TNE is one of our less sung export successes. In purely financial terms it is significant and I have written before about its importance in building trust, understanding and collaboration across borders and TNE’s role in the ‘soft power’ impact of the UK. The figures show how important TNE is to the UK, to the university sector and to all those hundreds of thousands of students undertaking UK awards through TNE. In working on the proposal, I sought to create a scheme that was ambitious, that put a focus on our TNE students, on partners, on TNE host nations and on mutual learning. The figures in the mid-point review I hope illustrate that it has met the goals we had for it. UK TNE provision in nine countries across three continents has been evaluated to date. Its important that the QE-TNE scheme is flexible. It showed itself able to work effectively as we all adapted to the impact of a global pandemic with Covid-19.  At a country specific level, the scheme showed it could respond to the circumstances in Sri Lanka, in the face of its 2022 financial crisis, using the opportunity to explore questions about how to support TNE provision through change and upheaval. I would still like to see greater use of TNE to enable students to learn with other students in different nations, to explore differing cultural perspectives and insights into their discipline. There are outstanding examples of how UK institutions have embedded TNE for the enrichment of students and staff at different locations, often benefitting research as well as learning. I think we all learn most when we collaborate for mutual benefit and look to learn all we can from that process of engaged collaboration. I would like to support and emphasise the conclusion to the mid-point review, which I summarise here: We do not know how the UK higher education TNE landscape will change over the two years before the current, successful, QE-TNE scheme comes to an end in 2026, but the need for UK-wide, coherent, enhancement-focused oversight of UK-TNE provision will remain. The success of UK TNE is contingent on its reputation for delivering high-quality provision. With the ongoing growth of TNE, quality must not only be maintained but also continuously improved. “The need to maintain and develop this mechanism, with its core principles of enhancement-led, context-sensitive, student-focused, UK-wide oversight of TNE, is clear”. It is in the best interests of UK TNE and of our students around the world.

27

1 Comment

Want to improve your digital skills? 💻 RETAS are starting up a new term of our digital literacy courses, which will expand your knowledge and improve your digital confidence⌨️ For more info, get in touch📩

5

As someone who spent most of my career working with HE institutions, it is great that we can offer market leading Digital Learning Design training for those very institutions. Many people working in digital learning design have fallen into the role from other disciplines and this programme gives them the structure and the tools to be successful in their role. Not only gaining the requisite knowledge, but being able to demonstrate the skills and behaviours needed. #learningdesign #apprenticeships #UCAS #HigherEducation

1

Agreed. It's time to invest in libraries and public services as a whole. It has been reported that the Scottish Government plans to shift the focus of the NHS towards 'preventative care' (https://lnkd.in/eR8A7w95). Properly funded libraries play an integral part of this by contributing towards community engagement, connection, health literacy, wellbeing and so much more.

18

Interested in finding out how LORIC can support B2B businesses? Read the first blog in our new series of updates- LORIC Supports...B2B

2

Want to see just how impactful social VR can be on a University student learning experience - watch this video!! This week in the Digital Creativity team in Loughborough School of Design and Creative Arts, we taught 39 postgraduate Graphic Design and Visualisation students about the complexities of working in teams using a fantastical maze task we developed in-house using our own 'land-of-the-loogabarooga' social VR platform. Students in teams with coloured/uniform avatars had to find their way out the maze as quickly as possible using cues in the maze but also aided by their team leader who appeared as a 'giant' in the world looking down on teammates as if they were 'ants'! There were a LOT of takeaways..... 1. The joy in the room is amazing to see/hear (make sure to turn on sound in video to get full effect!!) 2. All learning outcomes were met, related to better awareness of team skills/cohesion, value of VR, etc. 3. All students used headsets (no-one used the alternative desktop methods we provided) 4. Some students clearly prefer to sit while in VR for extended periods 5. Technically everything performed extremely well with up to 22 people simultaneously in VR in the same virtual world with no deterioration in performance, a big achievement! 6. The audience really appreciated the comfy seats at back plus the 3rd person view on big screen to 'follow the action' 7. It is very labour intensive to run these kinds of teaching sessions (we needed several helpers and it took an hour at least to set up space in advance). We'll take these points forward for the next teaching session - but one thing very apparent is the need for a means of providing students with basic skills for VR in advance so less of teaching time is spent just 'getting them into VR'! I'll be talking about this more at an UCISA event in a few weeks time! ...... Thanks as always to all the people who helped to make this happen, especially Karen Jiyun Sung, Ph.D and Ahmed Ehab Abdelsalam, Ph.D. as well as Jessica Learson and Liam Patel.

120

13 Comments

NEW PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT: AI in Secondary Schools As part of the RAi UK Skills Programme, Centre colleagues and members of the Data Education in Schools team (Prof Judy Robertson, Serdar Abaci, Kate Farrell, Jasmeen Kanwal) are working closely with teachers and partner organisations in Scotland (The Scottish Government, Education Scotland, Scottish Qualifications Authority) to create resources to support key critical AI literacy skills to equip young people for living and working in the age of AI and offer professional learning for teachers. The project responds to an urgent need to develop critical AI literacy in learners, and to support teachers in developing the skills and knowledge to incorporate GenAI in their classroom teaching and learning responsibly. The Data Education in Schools team also recruited a cohort of six AI Teachers in Residence from secondary schools in Scotland who will create learning resources on the use and understanding of AI across different subjects. Learn more about the project and its activities at the link in the comments. #GenAI #AI #AIinschools #AIliteracy #digitaleducation #digitalliteracy

9

1 Comment

We are delighted to support responsible innovation in the creative industries with Birmingham City University through a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) on behalf of UK Research and Innovation. 💡 Digital Catapult has over a decade of experience scaling innovations at the intersection of creativity and technology, and we look forward to supporting activities from this £6.75 million project. Learn more ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ebn6fTv8 Royal Shakespeare Company | Coventry University | University of Birmingham | The University of Warwick

18